


The blanket

by legolastariel



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 06:24:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8360827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/legolastariel/pseuds/legolastariel
Summary: Only few hours till season 7 starts and most of us probably saw the sneak preview. Saw Daryl's blanket at the end next to the victim's remains. And this is what could have happened ...





	

**Author's Note:**

> I just quickly tossed this together, due to lack of time, but I sort of had to have this written. Just a short nervously written something sooooo shortly before all hell is gonna break loose.  
> Hang in there, folks!
> 
> P.S. Thanks a lot to my beta staceykc for betaing this piece. I appreciate it, dear.

The blanket

 

“Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.”

Negan continued walking up and down the line, passed Rick deliberately slow, walked over to his left, then turned back around and went the opposite direction. Each time he passed the leader the grin on his face widened. He loved this game. Always had. But it had never been as much fun with any other group before. Maybe because no one had ever dared challenge him the way Rick Grimes had done, and if Negan loved doing one thing it was putting people in their place and teach them a lesson. And that lesson was: “I am the boss. Not you or anyone else. I am.”

“Catch the tiger by its toe …”

Rick’s sight was blurry and the stinging sensation in his eyes increased with each passing second, while breathing became more difficult. He felt as though his fear and guilt were choking him, while Negan continued his sick, perverted game. Rick’s heart was trying to break out of his ribcage, each frantic beat painfully loud to his own ears. 

“And you – are – it!” 

It was quiet all of a sudden. No one dared say a word or even breathe. And Rick’s heart seemed to have stopped in right that moment, too. 

_“No! NO! Not him!”_

Negan walked over to the leader, planted himself before him with a wide evil grin, pointing Lucille at the spot right in front of him.

“Bring that shit over here! Don’t want Rick to miss the show.”  
He crouched down before him and said smugly.  
“Being the leader should have some benefits, you know. Like a seat in the front row.” 

Negan’s right hand man Simon along with Dwight grabbed the archer on either arm, ignoring Daryl’s suppressed yelp when Simon put strain on his injured shoulder, and dragged him over to the appointed spot. 

For a moment it was deadly silent. Rick desperately tried to remember how to breathe, while the stinging sensation in his eyes increased. This couldn’t be happening. These people were all dear to him, but … _Daryl_. Of all the people in this world, it couldn’t be him he was going to lose tonight. 

“Hey”, Negan kicked the tip of his boot against Daryl’s thigh. “My men tell me that you’re the asshole, who blew up my bikers the other day.”

The archer lifted his head and looked at him from beneath his long bangs, but didn’t reply. He had never been a man of many words and had made it a habit to only speak, when it made sense at all, when he had something to say. Nothing he could have said right here and now would change matters, so why bother.

“A quiet one, huh?” Negan sneered. “Wish I had more of your kind.” He looked over to Rick.  
“You should have followed his example, Rick, and kept your mouth shut. Lay low. Be a little more humble. But you had to be the big boss, right?”

He kicked Daryl once more.

“Turn a little, so you can have a nice last look at the chief there.”

When the archer didn’t comply instantly, Simon yanked him around forcefully, drawing yet another pained yelp from him.

“Look at him!” Negan ordered determinedly.

This time Daryl complied. Not because he had been ordered to, but because this was exactly how he would have wanted to go. He had never deluded himself about any of his dreams and hopes. Making wishes was futile for Dixons – no wish had ever come true for him in all of his life. So he had hoped to be granted at least one the moment he died. And leaving this world looking into Rick’s eyes, that was the one thing he had wished for. Nothing else. Just seeing him one last time and taking that picture with him into the next world. Even a Dixon should be entitled to a last wish. 

There were tears in Rick’s eyes, one or the other slowly running down his cheeks, when he locked eyes with Daryl. 

_“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry! This is all on me. Daryl …”_

“Take a good look – this is the man you followed, the man who caused all this. He is responsible for you being here. And your death now – that’s on him.”

Daryl kept quiet. Didn’t even look at Negan or pay any attention to him. He held his eyes firmly locked with Rick’s.

_“Nothin' ta be sorry for, Rick. Ain't yer fault. None a' this.”_

Negan watched them closely. He had done this countless times – have the victim face the leader of the group and point out that their death was on that one particular person. He loved to watch all that hate, anger and disgust flare up in a person’s eyes, right before he bashed their head in. Leaving the leader behind to a death on their conscience that they would never receive absolution for, the accusation in the victim’s eyes haunting them forever. 

He waited. Waited for the same hate and fury to flare up in Daryl’s eyes, only to have his mouth gap open the next second and gasp. Daryl was smiling. He looked at Rick totally calm, an incredible gentleness in his eyes – and he smiled. And Rick stopped weeping the same moment. 

“The hell …”, Negan cursed furiously, giving Daryl a rough shove that had the blanket he had been wrapped in slide off his shoulders.  
“For fuck’s sake, what is this?”

Furiously he pointed at the injured shoulder, while Daryl struggled to get back up, after the rough shove had him almost fall over.

“That asshole is damaged goods. Which one of you pricks shot at my property?” He gestured to Simon. “Take that shit back to his spot in the line. Ain’t gonna make a point killing off someone who’s likely to fall over if I breathe to hard. He’s obviously nuts anyway, smiling like a moron. Get me the next in line there.”

The noise was back. The moment Daryl was back in the line, safe, Rick’s heart started beating again. As violently as before, but it was beating. And now he even knew whom it was beating for. 

The blanket was gone, but Daryl didn’t feel the cold that engulfed him. He felt warm and cozy from the inside out, because his wish would have come true. If he had died tonight, he would have left looking into Rick’s eyes. And what he had seen in them, what Rick’s soul had silently communicated with his, left cause for hope that he would _live_ now, looking into Rick’s eyes.


End file.
